Monday, August 9, 2010

Selections at Solo: Solana Beach

This weekend I stumbled upon a stellar selection of vintage and re-purposed treasures at Solo in Solana Beach. Cedros avenue is home to a range of unique boutiques and art galleries, which make up the "Design District", some of which aren't notable and some which are.

Those worth seeing include David Alan's custom wood work gallery, which has massive hand made pieces of furniture from beautiful polished wood. He also creates colorful, aged ornaments out of scrap wood from old boats. Although they are pricey, the beauty of the untouched wood would make a gorgeous addition to any home, granted you have a ton of space to fill!

However, on a smaller scale I loved these trunk potters. What a great way to re-use firewood in the summertime, or just simply make use of abandoned pieces of trees you see everywhere.

Just past his studio you'll find Solo, an upscale consignment shop which showcases about ten different collectors. A treasure trove of curio's, each little shop vignette has it's own style, yet all together the warehouse feels like a one-stop shopping destination for everything from office-wares to stuff for a kids room.

One booth called Saint A's smelled wonderful, and was stacked with tons of European soaps and lotions, body care products and soy candles. It was decorated with an array of religious statues, vintage perfume bottles and various collectible glassware.Everything here had a very Parisian, feminine quality about it.

Especially loved these old chemist flutes and apothecary bottles...In another area, adorable stuff for kids at Em & Me. With bins of sock monkeys and other knit characters, wooden pull toys, and vintage modern mobiles, it's a great spot to shop for a unique baby shower gift or to add some color to a kid's room. Look at these ballet flats, so cute!

And these miniature messages in a bottle are fun, but would also be a fun project to create on your own with a child.

Towards the back area was an entire section of stuff I wanted... and drooled over for quite awhile before being able to take it all in.

The collection of Jennifer Price included awesome vintage industrial furniture and knick knacks suited for an eclectic office, work space, or loft.

Yet very masculine, I loved the organic, sort of rough edge design to everything, including these metal stencils, military style tags and zinc alphabet letters which could be used for anything.

Check out this genius way of recycling an old mattress spring into a photo holder...

She even has Bell jar's! These globes make anything look good, and could serve as a funky way to memorialize a souvenir or piece of artwork. They make even a scrap piece of paper stand out, very cool.

More machine-made and old academic decorative/ functional pieces with these articles of signage, lighting and notepads...

Plus, an adjacent display of raw, garden inspired relics. I liked the driftwood mixed with metal, and brown bottled glass. Many of the wire storage containers reminded me of the farms in Kansas, and the tools in my Dad's old butcher business.

Another Eco-friendly approach to gardening with these recycled paper pulp pots...

By this time I was pretty over stimulated, and didn't get enough time in some of the remaining booths, but on my way out I did notice these cute seed bombs at Ruby Lang's collection, (which fulfill my a Johnny Appleseed fantasy) alongside more religious ornaments, and organic collectibles including handmade jewelry and coin purses.

A neighboring vendor displayed retro sunhats with a golden skull, and I took it as an ode to a slightly Gothic summer. Again, genius!

Solo had even more shopping opportunities with a variety of nice Architecture, Interior Design and Art books, in addition to stationary, wrapping paper and greeting cards.

Now that I know it's there, I will be back with more time to explore the ever-changing treasures. Plus on Sundays, Solana Beach hosts a Farmer's Market on Cedros that may be as promising as it looks.